Anthro 10/11

market economies.

Large societies. These are very impersonal but highly efficient systems of production, distribution, and exchange that are principally characterized by. 1. the use of money as a means of exchange 2. having the ability to accumulate vast amounts of capital (i.e., wealth that can be used to fund further production) 3. having complex economic interactions that are ultimately international in scale

dumb-barter

This is barter without direct contact between the traders. Individuals from one group leave trade goods at a neutral location usually on the edge of their territory and then leave

Kula Ring

This was an extensive network of inter-island trade to the east and northeast of New Guinea. The Kula Ring was studied firsthand among the Trobriand click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced Islanders during World War I by an anthropologist named Bronislaw Malinowski. At that time, it still operated largely in its purely indigenous form. The Kula Ring was a closed trading system in which only established senior male trading partners from each island could participate.

General purpose money

a portable, arbitrarily valued medium of exchange. All market economies today use this form of money.

potlatch

among the Indian cultures of the Northwest Coast region of North America is a good example. This was a complex system of competitive feasting, speechmaking, and gift giving intended in part to enhance the status of the giver.

balanced reciprocity

an explicit expectation of immediate return. Simple barter or supermarket purchases involve this understanding. If you walk out of a store without paying for the goods that you have taken, you very likely will be stopped by the store employees

usufruct

an owner normally can "own" land and other substantial property only as long as it is being used or actively possessed. The society as a whole is the real owner. The individual "owner" is responsible for looking after the property for the society--he or she essentially only has stewardship over it

proprietary deed

an owner of property has the right to keep it whether or not it is being used or actively possessed. For instance, an individual may own a number of houses and never use them. In addition, the owner has the right to pass the property on to descendants or to others chosen by the owner. In fact, ownership is not always absolute in large-scale societies today.

Special purpose money

consists of objects that serve as a medium of exchange in only limited contexts.

kinship

culturally defined relationships between individuals who are commonly thought of as having family ties. Kinship is based on marriage, descent, and, occasionally, fictive relationships as well.

redistributive exchanges

economic exchanges intended to distribute a society's wealth in a different way than exists at present

Generalized reciprocity

gift giving without the expectation of an immediate return. For example, if you are shopping with a friend and you buy him a cup of coffee, you may expect him to buy you one in return at some time in the future.

Gift giving

is a common form of non-market exchange within a community. In small-scale societies, the gifts are frequently tools, food, and other supplies needed to meet family shortages. Public opinion forces a family whose harvest is larger than another's to share it

Negative reciprocity

occurs when there is an attempt to get someone to exchange something he or she may not want to give up or when there is an attempt to get a more valued thing than you give in return.

Systems of production

refer to how food and other necessities are produced. In other words, they are the subsistence patterns--i.e., foraging, pastoralism, horticulture, and intensive agriculture.

Systems of distribution and exchange

refer to the practices that are involved in getting the goods and services produced by a society to its people.

Barter

trading goods and services directly for other goods and services without the use of money as a medium of exchange.